Re: KNOCKING THE ARMY-Conversion of NAC w/berets to ball caps

At 03:59  31/03/02 +0000, Scott wrote:
>The old ball cap was a very distinctive and unique part of the army 
>uniform. When you saw a group of NATO soldiers it was pretty easy to
pick 
>out the Americans by the 'ball caps'. In addition, the cap points back
to 
>the Army's history- remember the Civil War? Vietnam too...It also
points 
>to the American people and the national pastime- baseball. An easy
visual 
>link to the American people.

Maybe once but not any more, base ball caps are everywhere, commerical 
companies stick logos on them and hand them out, other militaries use
them. 
A part of the uniform for the working day on board ship in the Royal 
Australian Navy is a baseball cap with the ship's name, etc on it.

I suppose it's the down side to "Cultural Imperialism" :) everyone likes
to 
use a good idea. Just think how the French felt in the 30's (?) when
armies 
of the world adopted the beret ( with the advent of mechanization? ),
after 
all it was part of the french national dress.

Cheers

Derek

Derek Fulton
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